You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m passionate about papercrafting. I suppose I have to be to design and create a new project every day for my blog. That doesn’t mean that I don’t experience a creative block every now and again, I do. However when I hit that brick wall I simply sit down and start playing and experimenting with tools and materials. I don’t have a finished project in mind, or any kind of plan. I just play for the fun of it and try not to stress about ‘making something’.

Today’s bookmark project came out of one of those experimentation sessions. I’d recently got the Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder and was simply trying it out. In the end I had several pieces of embossed card and that’s when the brick wall came down so to speak.

DEFINING THE BRICK WALL

As I said, this project came out of an experiment with the Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder.

Without any attempt at imagination I began with a piece of Terracotta Tile Card. As I was using a 3D embossing folder I spritzed the card very lightly on both sides with some clean water. Then I dragged a Whisper White Craft Stampin’ Ink pad over both sides on the inside of the embossing folder. I placed the card inside, closed the folder and ran it through my embossing machine. When I opened up the folder my card was embossed but it also had some subtle white areas pressed into the bricks.

Although I liked the lighter ‘mortar’ the bricks still seemed to need more definition. So I grabbed a piece of Stampin’ Sponge that had previously been used to sponge some Tuxedo Black ink on another project. Without adding any more ink to the sponge I very lightly wiped it over the surface of my brick wall. The more raised ‘bricks’ picked up some of the ink and made the brick wall look much more realistic.

And then I put the piece aside and moved on to something else entirely.

FAST FORWARD A MONTH

It was more than a month later when I was looking through some of my experiments and part-finished pieces that I came across the brick wall again. Suddenly I had an idea and trimmed the piece down to 2″ x 5-1/2″. Then I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to attach it to an identical-sized piece of Very Vanilla Card.

Next I shaped the top of the strip with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch and the bottom with the corner rounder option on the Detailed Trio Punch. Then I threaded a loop of 3/16″ Braided Linen Trim through the slot and passed the ends through the loop to secure it.

NINE AND THREE QUARTERS

That just left the sentiment, and with Harry Potter in mind that meant 9¾.

To do this I turned to the Make A Difference Stamp Set which has two styles/sizes of numbers and letters. I created my sentiment, stamping it onto some Very Vanilla Card using Tuxedo Black ink. Then I punched it out using a 1″ Circle Punch.

Next, to give the impression of age I used that dry piece of Stampin’ Sponge again to add a little Tuxedo Black ink around the edge. Despite the sponging I still felt the circle needed a little more impact.

Looking through my dies I found the #1 (smallest) scalloped edge die from the Layering Circles was the perfect size. So I cut it out of a scrap of Basic Black Card.

All I had left to do was use liquid glue to fix the sentiment to the black piece and then add it to the bookmark.

So now I’ve made three different Harry Potter themed bookmarks and some treat packaging. Maybe it’s time to check with my granddaughter and daughter and see what else they are reading…

You’ll find my other Harry Potter themed projects in these earlier blog posts:

• Alohomora and other unique words
• A Paper Pumpkin Thing – Bone Appetit
• WCMD challenge completed, just

PROJECT LIST